In late December, a mysterious type of pneumonia broke out in the Chinese city of Wuhan and has since been confirmed by China and the World Health Organisation to be a new strain of coronavirus.

British Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps stated on Wednesday that the country’s largest Heathrow Airport will introduce special areas for people arriving from countries affected by the coronavirus.

“There’s been some announcements this morning about flights that come directly from the infected region to Heathrow with some additional measures there. This is to ensure that when flights come in directly to Heathrow there is a separate area for people to arrive in,” Shapps told Sky News.

A new strain of coronavirus called 2019-nCoV, that can be transmitted from human to human was confirmed earlier by the World Health Organisation and China after the disease broke out in the country’s city of Wuhan.

So far, the virus has claimed the lives of at least nine people with more than 400 being infected. Besides China, the virus has also been registered in Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan.